XI Jinping (see picture), the country’s new president, is being described either as a nationalist, who has set China on an overly aggressive course or as someone who will skilfully and harmoniously guide the nation through major domestic and international reforms. …

ONE of Sinopec’s subsidiaries, Shanghai Petrochemical, has weighed-in to the debate over US shale gas by warning that cheap petrochemicals imports from the States could erode the whole of China’s competitiveness.

IF China’s decade-long focus on coal-fuelled heavy industry is really coming to an end, as this article in The Sydney Morning Herald suggests, then the prospects for further approvals of coal-to-olefins (CTO) projects seem very bleak indeed.…